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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23703544">Twice upon the first dance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/giorgiaink/pseuds/giorgiaink'>giorgiaink</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff and Angst, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:33:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,589</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23703544</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/giorgiaink/pseuds/giorgiaink</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>Please consider I'm not an english native speaker, so be clement but also let me know if I wrote something wrong!</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gamora &amp; Guardians of the Galaxy Team, Gamora/Peter Quill</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Twice upon the first dance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23703286">Di nuovo in ballo</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/giorgiaink/pseuds/giorgiaink">giorgiaink</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Please consider I'm not an english native speaker, so be clement but also let me know if I wrote something wrong!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Searching for Gamora around the galaxy was not easy, but the hardest part was to convince her to join the team again. None of the guardians expected her to already be on her own mission. She was their only mission. And she didn't want to talk to them.<br/>
Eventually Nebula was able to convince her to spend some time with them, as long as they stayed on the same planet to let her do what she needed to do.<br/>
So she was on their spaceship again but she couldn't recognise it. It didn't feel like home to her now.<br/>
They were so chaotic it was easy for her to avoid real talks. Probably precisely because they really wanted to.<br/>
Let's just say she wasn't thrilled about the idea of talking to someone she didn't know but who thought to know her. Especially she wanted to avoid Peter. But she knew she couldn't do that for long.</p><p>She went to bed early but without sleeping. She tried to listen to Quill and Rocket's whispers and then she had to wait until very late at night for Mantis and Drax to stop chatting and laughing.<br/>
When the entire ship was silent, she waited a few more minute before sneaking out, quietly but really quickly.<br/>
Once she was out, she slowed down with a smirk on her face. At least until she heard someone not far from her. She turned ready to fight but when she saw it was Peter it was clear she had nothing to worry about. Not only because she didn't consider him capable to defeat her, but also because of his attitude. Definitely not what she would have expected. At first he seemed surprised, but then he looked at her in a totally different way, like he already knew she would come. She noticed he swallowed and took a deep breath before speaking.<br/>
"Do you want to leave?" His voice was calm but his eyes were communicating very clearly he was trying to hide a lot of different emotions.<br/>
She was determined. "Yes."<br/>
He nodded slowly and glanced away. Without knowing why, she found herself looking somewhere else too. And she couldn't turn even when she felt his eyes on her again. She hadn't let her guard down but she didn't want to look at him.<br/>
Then she heard him softly saying "okay."<br/>
She stared at him with a look of surprise, still suspicious.<br/>
"If that's what you really want, just go."<br/>
She started towalk again but never stopped looking at him. And studying him.<br/>
"I won't stop you!" Now he was sounding upset. "You're acting like you're a prisoner but we're..." he stopped shaking nervously his head, trying to collect his thoughts. Then he looked straight in her eyes. "We spent months searching for you because you're part of the family. We all are family."<br/>
She was embarassed, not sure if she should have been flattered or disgusted. Somehow he knew, or maybe he was just insecure but he suddenly became defensive.<br/>
"I know it sound corny. You said it first, for the record. You even put yourself ahead of my father." This last sentence made him cracking up into a little nervous laugh so he stopped to calm himself.<br/>
"But you were right." He sighed. "You were right because my father had serious delusions of grandeur." He smiled. "But that's not the point. The point is you were there to remind me who I am when I needed it. You all were there even when the planet was about to explode. Because we're a family and we watch each other's backs. I know you never experienced those things, but we did. Maybe you don't care and I'm not saying you should stay for us, but.. just don't run away in the middle of the night. That's not a nice thing to do. You should at least say goodbye. Everyone in that spaceship loves you. Even if you don't know them. Groot is young, he litterally grew up with us. He grew up with you! I mean, the other version of you, but still... he would be really hurt if you leave without saying goodbye. He would probably be more hurt than anyone."<br/>
She already had stopped walking away to listen to him and was still analyzing him.<br/>
"Groot?" She asked, low-key teasing him.<br/>
"Yeah, Groot." He shrugged his shoulders and looked away again.<br/>
She looked at the spaceship for a moment. "Okay,then. I'll come back to say goodbye to him. But I can't stay now."<br/>
But only one move of hers and he couldn't help himself from admitting the truth.<br/>
"Me too!"<br/>
She turned to look at him again.<br/>
"I would be particularly hurt too." He sighed with a sincere look on his face. "I think... I think I deserve at least a goodbye."<br/>
She looked around nervously, then walked right up to him and stopped just an inch away.<br/>
"Goodbye."<br/>
The next moments of silence felt like an eternity to her, but only a breath to him.<br/>
"I don't know what else to say."<br/>
His eyes fell down to his walkman just for a second,then he smiled at her. "We could dance."<br/>
She frowned.<br/>
"I'm a warrior and an assassin. I do not dance."<br/>
She didn't even finish the senstence when he started rolling his eyes. "Yeah, of course. I've heard this before!"<br/>
He took the headphones and handed her one. "Can you please try?"<br/>
She didn't move, suspicious.<br/>
He smiled again thinking about the first time they danced and she attacked him with a knife to stop him from kissing her. "No "pelvic sorcery", I promise."<br/>
"What?" She threateningly leaped forward.<br/>
"No, hey! Your words, not mine! It's just something you said because... nevermind. Can we just let this go? Can you just try to trust me? Or don't trust me, trust the other version of yourself who.." He stopped to rephrase. "Trust the version of yourself who danced with me. Even if she didn't want me to tell anyone. And I didn't, for the record. I never told anyone and I won't this time either."<br/>
She thought about it for a few seconds, then she finally nodded and took the earbud from his hand.<br/>
He started the music, slowly approached her and took her hand. The simple touch of her skin felt like home. He gently put his other hand on her back and closed his eyes to enjoy the moment but opened them almost immediately to look at her. He could see in her eyes she didn't trust him but she couldn't help but like the music.<br/>
They danced silently for a while, until she broke the silence. "How did you get me to dance the first time?"<br/>
"Well, first of all, I know your secret." His voice was sweet and gentle and made her uncomfortable.<br/>
"What are you talking about?"<br/>
"I'm talking about the fact that you secretly love music very much and you just pretend you don't like it because you're afraid  to lose your heartless warrior armor." Somehow he sounded both teasing and sweet at the same time.<br/>
"Nonsense."<br/>
"That's not nonsense. That's the truth. And you love dancing too."<br/>
She shook her head but he turned the volume up and started to dance more. He moved closed to whisper in her ear: "Close your eyes."<br/>
She replied very quickly: "No."<br/>
"C'mon! It's just you and me and I won't do anything, I just want you to actually listen to the music!"<br/>
She snorted but closed her eyes and let him guide her on the last notes of the song. She let a smile slip and couldn't help but keeping smiling even when she reopened her eyes and they met Peter's.<br/>
She noticed his expression suddenly changed when the next song started.<br/>
"We already danced to this song once."<br/>
He regretted saying that when her smile disappeared from her face. But he knew he still had her attention.<br/>
"It's not the first song we danced to, that was "Fooled around and fell in love" and, to answer your question, we just had a moment, you know? We shared stuff about our parents. Then I told you about Footlose and I tried to kiss you but it didn't go well. I wouldn't do it the same way."<br/>
"I don't know the things you mentioned."<br/>
"I know. I was just trying to say it's worst that you don't remember us dancing this song. It wasn't the first one but it brought us such a better moment. Because we knew each other and you trusted me."<br/>
Gamora slightly distanced herself from him and looked away and suddenly the chance of having to watch her running away forever seemed too real for him.<br/>
"If you think about it, this is the first time I ask you to dance and you haven't tried to stab me yet. So maybe this means things could be even better this time.<br/>
She gave him an exasperated glance before going back to look away.<br/>
"Look at me." He definitely didn't want to give up but his voice was more and more broken. "Whatever you need to do, we can do it together. All of us. We just want to help you. I'm not asking for anything but to stay. You had reasons to trust me. You could find out if you stay. Look at me."<br/>
Finally she turned and he had the chance to look straight in her eyes to ask her one last time:<br/>
"Stay."</p>
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